RAW FOOD BASICS

Mom and I are getting frustrated over some of our attempts at making raw food dishes and we have put our heads together and come up with the reason why. The basics is the answer.

Think of it like this; if you were a chef in a restaurant, you would be required to add things to your recipe, things like milk, water, butter, cream, juice, whatever is considered the wet stuff, the liquid ingredients. You would also need to add dry things.

The difference between the chef and you is, they already have those things on hand; they either came from a box, a container, carton or a package. In your case, you will make these things as you go which is in keeping with “rawism”. In the beginning of your raw journey, you may want to go ahead and purchase pre-made nut butters and cream, nut milks, seed milks, etc. You can choose to make your own juices or buy organic juices that match the raw criteria. Either way, you will then have the ingredients you need to finish your recipes.

A good example of starting with the basics is a recipe mom and I received recently. Somewhere in the body of the recipe, it calls for adding “butter” to your dry ingredients and you wonder where the “butter” came from. Well, the first ingredient on this list is coconut. By now, you should have taken the meat from a coconut and blended it into butter. There is your “butter”.

Remember, there are many basics to a recipe, if you have those basics on hand ahead of time, you will cut your preparation time down considerably. Make your sauces, creams, milks and butters and keep them ready.

We bought a “ball” of candy which as it happens turned out to be the “paste” in the recipe for a choco maca shake. If you have a bunch of those little balls of paste made up ahead of time, you can quickly add your liquid ingredients and make your shake in much less time.

We have agreed to purchase the basics to start with and, as we go, we will start making the basics for ourselves. Hopefully this will cut down on the frustration when things don’t turn out the way it should. It may seem like it is more expensive to start out this way but, by the time you try and try again and still don’t come up with what you want, you are wasting money on those attempts. We are going to gradually start making our own basics but, in the beginning, we are going to purchase them always keeping in mind the raw criteria. Earth Balance makes some great spreads and Cascadian Farm makes some raw veggies available in the freezer section of the supermarket. You can get raw nut butters, milks, creams and such. You can purchase many varieties of nut milks and seed milks at your local grocers as well. Many health food stores carry all of these products but may be a bit more expensive. Shop around. Start there so you don’t get frustrated and turn back before you give it a chance.

SHOULD YOU GO ORGANIC

That is the question many have raised in recent years and more and more you will find organically grown/raised products at your local supermarket. An even bigger question is what exactly is organic? What does it mean?

Organically grown fruits and vegetables means that the land has not been treated with herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers for a period of at least three years and the produce is not subjected to harmful toxins. It means the produce you buy is unprocessed or very little process has taken place. Studies have shown that nutritional qualities is based on how the produce is grown; without the chemicals, the soil is more nutrient rich leading to more nutritious products. When they are not treated, they become more robust and capable of fighting off disease and these components are passed on to you.

For non-organic meat and eggs, it means the animals are given hormones for quicker growth and faster yield. They are given antibiotics to prevent disease. Again, these chemicals are passed on to you, the consumer. It has been found that these antibiotically-charged products have led to our immunity to antibiotics. Animals that are given treated grain can store these chemicals in their fat cells. When you consume animal fat, you are consuming these chemicals. When buying lean meat, you lower that risk but the risk is still there.

With organically produced milk, the animals are kept in a more confined area that is kept chemical-free and their feed is a key element. No chemicals for them means no chemicals for you.

So when asking yourself if you should go organic, think about what the product has been treated with and if you want to be treated with the same and remember, the more you receive these harmful additives, the more you will require them. Become chemical-free and take the plunge, go organic, you will be glad you did.

RAW FOOD RESTAURANT IN FLORIDA

On several occasions, my mother and I have had the pleasure of dining at "The Present Moment" raw food restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida. Yesterday, they offered an "uncooked" class which was attended by many people who are in varying degrees of rawism. There were several 100% raw foodists there and several who were just getting started, like mom and I. It was a very enthusiastic gathering and the class was an enjoyable experience. I had a chance to speak with several people and the thing mom and I like the most is how friendly everyone is. I think it has something to do with the good food they are consuming. The owner of the restaurant headed up the class and started out by saying raw food is good for the mind, spirit and body.

Yvette showed us how to make a variety of sauces to have on hand and showed us different ways to use these sauces. She also suggested that we date and label everything we make and Agave plastic bottles are great storage containers to use for this purpose.

We learned how to make portabella croquettes which has a seafood flavor added in which made them appear like crab cakes, or in this case, "uncrabby cakes". They were delicious as was the spinach and cheese sauce mix. The spinach she used was from Cascadian Farms and can be found in the freezer section of your local grocers. She did some research on some of the Cascadian Farms items and found them to be compliant with the "raw" guidelines.

We learned how to make a vegetable sushi and tamales. We were also able to sample some of the juices, shakes and organic wine that are available at the bar.

The booklet we received contained the above recipes with the addition of several more great ideas and a lot of helpful information. I imagine if you visit their website, you can request a copy of this booklet, there may be a small charge for it but it is well worth it.

The evening was topped off with a wonderful homemade raw ice cream which was loaded with flavor and very satisfying to the palate.

The Present Moment has a shop next door where you can find everyday items to incorporate into your raw food lifestyle with ease.

The experience was a good one and we are looking forward to our next visit to this lovely restaurant and hope that if a visit to Florida is in your future, keep this raw food restaurant in mind and add it to your itinerary, you will not regret it.

While you are there, visit the historical city of St. Augustine with all of its old buildings, an old fort, jail and school house, there is much to explore and a variety of tours available that are pleasurable for all ages.

WHEATGRASS MENTIONED ON THE TONIGHT SHOW

I am just getting started with wheatgrass and had my first real taste of it the other night. Wow, I thought I was going to start mooing but with all the benefits, I am going to start doing wheatgrass shots on a regular basis. I think I may put it in my smoothies to hide the flavor.

I was watching "The Tonight Show" last night, 09/25/08, and they had a segment of Presidential Jeopardy on with three very good impersonators for Bush, Palin and Obama.

One of the "answers" was "whole foods" and the Obama impersonator said it was a place to pick up some non-dairy tofu curry and some WHEATGRASS.

I thought it worth mentioning on my blog because more and more, mom and I are running into people that know about wheatgrass, have heard about it or are already consuming wheatgrass. Don't forget to check out mom's wheatgrass blog at GROW YOUR OWN WHEATGRASS. The tray shown in the picture is an actual tray of my mom's wheatgrass.

A WELL-BALANCED RAW FOOD DIET CONTAINS ALL THE PROTEIN NEEDED TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BODY

The importance of protein in your diet is best explained in The Center For Young Women's Health. If a raw foodist follows a well-balanced diet, they will get all the protein they need naturally from those raw foods. Protein contains the amino acids your body needs to help build and repair muscle, maintaining healthy tissue. Without protein, your body can start to break down leading to a variety of health issues. When on the raw food diet, you want to be sure you get all the nutrients your body needs including protein. There are many ways you can add protein to a raw food diet. Nuts are a great example of this; you can make purees or pate and also make your own milk from nuts. Seeds can also be ground and added to your recipes. Hemp seed milk is not only being sold in health food stores, it is now on the shelf at some of your local supermarkets. You can make your own butter from many of the nuts and seed varieties.

Many vegetables are rich in protein including your leafy vegetables such as romaine lettuce, kale, spinach, cabbage, chard and arugula. These types of protein can easily be added to a smoothie or, if you feel like munching on something, they can be used in a salad.

Until studying the raw food diet myself, I did not realize that many fruits contain protein as well; watermelon, tomatoes, pomegranates, dates, kiwi and avacodos are great sources of protein. The Fruit Pages contains a comprehensive table listing all nutritional information for many fruits and vegetables.

In addition to obtaining protein from seeds, nuts, vegetables and fruit, according to The Fat Free Kitchen, one ounce of wheatgrass per day contains the nutritional value of 2.5 pounds of vegetables and Living-Foods lists 35 very interesting uses for wheatgrass. Wheatgrass is sometimes hard to digest so juicing it is considered the best way to go and, if you have problems growing accustomed to the taste, you can add wheatgrass juice to grape juice or, again, throw it in with your other smoothie ingredients, let the other items conceal the taste.

DIABETES AND THE IMPORTANCE OF LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE

If you have diabetes, you really need to watch your blood pressure. With diabetes comes a higher risk of heart disease so the target BP level is lower.

A natural approach is much safer as well as less expensive. For hypertension, I am currently on four different costly medications with their attendant side effects and hope to one day come off of all of those.

There are many ways to lower your blood pressure naturally and I am going to share a link with you. DLife – For Your Diabetes Life has a list of 16 non-drug ways to lower your blood pressure.

Please click on the above link and start working towards a much lower blood pressure today, the natural way.

THE PROBLEM WITH PROCESSED FOODS

My dad and stepmom purchased what they thought was a can of turnip greens. Instead, when they opened the can, they found the can contained what appeared to be pork and beans. The name of the company is Glory. This particular brand is available nationwide and started showing up on shelves several years ago. It was created at the Ohio State University Food Industries Center and boasts a southern-style flavor in over 50 varieties of heat-and-serve products.

With a company that large, you would expect them to have some pretty stringent food safety measures in place but to mis-label, well, someone dropped the ball and you are left wondering what else they could be missing.

The more I turn to organic foods, raw foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, the more I worry about what really is in that processed food, or in this case, that can of "turnip greens". Are the cans on your pantry shelf what they really say they are? If you want a good scare, read the label.